At the same time, I Love Boobs (warning: NSFW), a close-up pic of a blonde with two large breasts, is one of the most tweeted images on International Women’s Day. This dichotomy illustrates how far women have come, and how far we have yet to go.

The edict goes on to say that women should wear the full Islamic hijab, should respect polygamy and should comply with Sharia law on divorce.

“It further stated that teasing, harassing and beating women was prohibited without a sharia-compliant reason — leaving open the suggestion that in some circumstances, domestic abuse is appropriate,” AFP reports.

Postmedia News reporters Natalie Stechyson and Bradley Bouzane wrote about that very topic yesterday. There’s been an increase in the numbers of women reporting pregnancy related job description in Canada, they found.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who has signed a law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion.

Contrary to a commonly-held belief, abortion isn’t available to every woman in Canada. Prince Edward Island women have to leave their province to get an abortion. The National Post reported in December that P.E.I. “is the only province that doesn’t provide abortion services. However, they do pay for abortions for P.E.I. residents who undergo the procedure at publicly funded hospitals in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.”

Fellow Atlantic province New Brunswick has one of the country’s most restrictive laws on funding for abortion, The Post reported in January.

“The province will only pay for abortions for women who can find two doctors to certify the procedure is medically necessary, a definition left up to the individual doctor. The abortion must be performed by a gynecologist in an approved hospital.“

— In older but relevant news, in March 2011 Canada was ranked sixth best place in the Commonwealth to have been born a girl by Plan International and the Royal Commonwealth Society. The country failed in political participation by women (men outnumber women by a ratio of three to one in politics, the study found). The pay gap is also worse in Canada than in other countries. According to the study, Canadian women make about two-thirds the salary of men, less than fellow western countries Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Gender-based violence also dragged down Canada’s ranking, as did as under-representation by women in science and technology.